


Tender

by wildeisms



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: (and by sweet I mean sad but also soft), (only lightly implied but just to be safe), Canonical Child Abuse, Canonical Neglect, Crying During Sex, Dave Katz is a Wonderful and Supportive Boyfriend, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Klaus Hargreeves Has PTSD, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Klaus Hargreeves-centric, M/M, Non-Explicit Sex, Psychological Trauma, Self-Esteem Issues, Short & Sweet, and he gets one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:01:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26735551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wildeisms/pseuds/wildeisms
Summary: Klaus was a poisonous storm in a fracturing glass, fragile like a bomb and altogethertoo much.or, Dave says 'I love you' for the first time during sex, and Klaus has a lot of overwhelming feelings.
Relationships: Klaus Hargreeves/David "Dave" Katz
Comments: 11
Kudos: 246





	Tender

**Author's Note:**

> You know when you have the Spicy Deja Vu(TM) and someone doing or saying one (1) overly sweet thing just makes you bawl your fucking eyes out? That's the vibe for this.
> 
> Set sometime during Klaus's time with Dave in Vietnam. Don't ask me questions about the setting, just know they found somewhere private for sex turned comforting cuddle time.

Sex, for Klaus, had been a lot of things. He’d had it rough, violent, frantic, kinky, drunk and drug-fuelled. He’d had anonymous sex, group sex, sex for money, sex for drugs, sex for a place to sleep for the night. Sex in alleyways, sex in strangers’ beds, sex in cars, and sex in bathrooms. Almost all of it had been consensual and a decent amount had been enjoyable - or at least that was true of what he could remember. If he filled in the blanks with some wishful thinking, well, that wasn’t a crime. 

He had enough experience that he didn’t think anyone or anything could surprise him anymore. 

So when Dave cupped his jaw, kissed his forehead and looked into his eyes with a whispered “I love you so much, baby,” the tears that suddenly burst from Klaus’s eyes in a rush of emotions were a shock to both of them.

“Shoot, baby, are you okay? What’s the matter? Did I hurt you or something?” Dave fussed, and though Klaus wanted to reassure him that he was completely fine, he just let out a horrible, wailing sob. It had been so long since he’d cried like this, his whole body shaking from it. A slight shedding of a tear or two could have been sweet, but this was anything but. This was ugly, messy sobbing, his face contorted and shoulders shaking. This was a horrible, twisted mirror of an orgasm, the wrong kind of release. He’d wanted to cry during sex before and he’d cried a few times after, when no one was looking, but it had never been like this. 

Strong arms wrapped around his trembling body, pulling him close against a firm chest. Klaus tucked his head down, hiding his face away in it. He was probably all gross and red and snotty, and he didn’t need Dave to see that. People always left when he stopped looking pretty and started looking crazy. He sniffed pitifully, a new wave of sobs threatening to burst out of him. Dave was going to leave him, all because he couldn’t stop crying. He was too much, too emotional, and Dave was going to leave him. 

“Shh, you’re okay, baby. You’re okay,” Dave soothed, and that was enough to set Klaus off all over again. “You’re okay. I’m so sorry.”

He wanted to push him away. He wanted to get out, to run and not come back. He wanted to cling to Dave like Dave’s life depended on it.

“I’m sorry,” he said eventually, when his sobs had subsided into a weak snivelling that was almost more pitiful and pathetic. He couldn’t bring himself to lift his head and see the look on Dave’s face. There was too much of a chance he’d be broken by what he saw there. “I’m really sorry, I don’t-”

“Hey, none of that, you don’t need to be sorry.”

But he did, he knew he did. He was ruining it, ruining everything, just like he always did. There was simply too much of him. He smothered everyone who ever got close, overwhelmed them until they couldn’t breathe, and now Dave was being suffocated too, and Klaus hated himself for it. Dave had unpicked the stitches that always seemed moments away from tearing, found the weakness in his structure and brought the barricades down with the lightest touch, and Klaus? Well, Klaus had come apart at the seams, spilled everywhere, and drowned him.

Klaus was a poisonous storm in a fracturing glass, fragile like a bomb and altogether  _ too much _ . 

He sighed shakily and wiped his eyes, still not daring to look up. 

“Wanna tell me what brought on the waterworks?” Dave asked.

He didn’t know how to answer that. But Dave waited, letting the silence linger, broken only by the small sounds of Klaus’s unsteady breathing. “I just… I guess it’s just that it doesn’t usually go like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like… tender. People don’t… not like that, not with me.” And that was fine. He was fine with that, fine with ‘worthless little whore’ and ‘desperate junkie slut’ being spat at him by men who weren’t interested in learning his name, just in using him to get off. He was fine with being the one night stand, the sexy stranger whose appeal disappears when the sun comes up. He was fine with being fucked and not loved. 

“Oh, baby…” He sounded so sad, it was almost enough to make Klaus cry again. “It’s just you and me, okay? No one’s gonna find out, find  _ us _ . We can take our time-”

“That’s… It’s not that. I just… God, this is so pathetic.” Klaus wiped his eyes with a giggle, trying desperately to ignore that his eyes were starting to get misty again. It was a terrible reflex to laugh at everything, no matter how upsetting or frightening or infuriating, but somehow, Dave had never scolded him for it. “I don’t think any living person’s ever told me that they love me before.” 

This time, he looked up, forcing himself to meet Dave’s eyes despite the overwhelming fear of what he might see in them. He had to be brave. Dave was brave, so incredibly brave, and so strong and sweet and beautiful. He was the better man in every conceivable way. 

Klaus had been a homeless drug addict for a number of years now. He knew what pity looked like all too well. But Dave didn’t look like he pitied him. His eyes were sad, but there wasn’t pity in his eyes. “I love you, Klaus Hargreeves,” Dave said, his voice soft but full of conviction.

“Careful, you’ll make me cry again,” Klaus warned, only half joking. “Jeez, you got some bad taste, falling for a sad sack like me.” But the intense look in Dave’s eyes didn’t waver, and he didn’t laugh. 

It was too late to stitch himself back together with snark and self-deprecation, to harden and hide again. Dave had seen the start of the flood that was Klaus Hargreeves, but somehow, inexplicably, he wasn’t leaving. He would leave one day, when Klaus became too much for even him, when his patience finally wore out, when he started to see Klaus as too intense, too complicated, too much. But that day was not yet here, and Klaus had precious moments to savour before it arrived. 

“I love you too.” 


End file.
